It's springtime in 2043, and a father and son decide to go on a trip. They pack up their hovercraft and head to Springfield, Mass., to visit the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Dad wants to teach his son about the stars from his childhood, so he shows him exhibits about Hall of Famers such as Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash.

"And you wouldn't believe this," the father says. "In 2013, they were all on the same team!"

"Are you kidding me?" the son says. "Four Hall of Famers? Surely they won the NBA championship. Did they win every single game that season?"

"Actually, son, they didn't even make the playoffs."

With only 25 games left, the Los Angeles Lakers wouldn't make the playoffs if the season ended now. Hollywood, it seems, has churned out another horror show.

The show's on display Monday in Denver at the Pepsi Center."

"I think the whole thing for me is, the fragility of an NBA team is based upon your team's togetherness and chemistry as much as it is on your team's talent," said Nuggets coach George Karl, who has lost three recent playoff series to the Lakers, the team he said on media day he despises. "I think Nash getting hurt early hurt them. Now the Gasol injury has hurt them, and because of all that, I don't think they've ever gotten connected in a confident way.

"I don't know how many wins it will take them, but it will be interesting to see if they can get in (the playoffs). You've got a team that will play desperate the rest of the way. Talented players — they might not get along — but they have a way, when they're desperate, to figure out how to like each other."

Watch the Lakers lose and it appears they don't know one another, let alone like. Nash, even in a familiar offense, can't seem to maximize role players (the Los Angeles bench is bad). Also, Nash and Howard, who's not playing at 100 percent, seldom click with the pick.

"We'd like to get him in the pick-and-roll more," Nash told The Orange County Register. "That's how he was really good in Orlando. He'd pick and he'd dive, and they'd swing and put it in to him, so he could get deeper catches and the help side has a more difficult time coming to him.

"It's been difficult, really, to get him into that game, running into pick-and-rolls, diving hard, looking for the ball. We really haven't found that rhythm from him yet."

Then there's Bryant. This was supposed to be his quest for a sixth championship ring, his foray toward Michael Jordan. Bryant added the Jordan-era equivalent of John Stockton and David Robinson to do just that. But this might be the season that besmirches Bryant's legacy. He has tried everything.

He led the league in scoring early in the season. Then he went on an assists rampage, trying to prove he could be a facilitator. He has complained, seethed, scowled and even tweeted for the first time. Nothing has consistently worked.

But the Lakers have begun to play better. Still, they continue to lose to good teams, although they have a recent win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. In the past month, the Lakers have lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat (twice).

"I'm surprised where they are right now, but I still have a feeling that they'll make the playoffs," Nuggets guard Ty Lawson said of the Lakers. "They'll be a tough out at the eighth or seventh seed (in the West). I think they'll make a little bit of noise, because the first and second seeds aren't going to want to play them."

Bryant thinks so too. Bryant told Sports Illustrated the Lakers would make the playoffs and that he doesn't fear any team in the Western Conference. Is it another tactic? A prideful prediction? Or will the proclamation just be another in a series of dubious moments in the most surprising season in NBA history?

There is some hoops hope. The Lakers, once 17-25, have won 11 of their past 15 games, including Sunday's national-TV win vs. Dallas.

Leave it to former NBA star Charles Barkley to sum it up.

"The Lakers are old, and they are not going to make the playoffs," the TNT analyst said last week. "If by happenstance they do make the playoffs, they're going to get beat like a drum in the first round."

Nothing we haven't already read, thought of, discussed..How would Benjamin Hochman from the Denver Post be able to provide any type of insight about our season and our chances that we haven't already gotten to after all this time?

The 2043 father and son thing was pathetic.

"The first time I ever saw my uniform hanging in the locker I put it on right away, and it just felt like I was putting on golden armour. From that day forward, I just called it 'the golden armour', it just felt like there was something mystical and magical about it" - Kobe Bryant.

I like how he throws it at the feet of Kobe, as if this hurts his legacy for being unable to win with a stacked team. He needs to remember that this isn't LeBron 2011 we're talking about. Kobe already has 5 rings, he's a proven winner. This season is less a reflection of Kobe than it is others on the team. Like the coach and the front office???

Very surprised by the article...maybe he was lookin for hits? I follow Benjamin Hochman on twitter last 3years and he comes on Mason and Ireland a couple of times a year, hes a funny dude and knows his ball.

Well, I think he said we "were" easy work, in reference to the game they had just played (and beat us) in. I didn't get the impression he meant that every single time he plays us in the past and in the future we are easy work. Haha.

Still, I hope we absolutely destroy these guys tonight too. Then, I want to see Kobe or someone else tweet or say "they were easy work" right back!

What gets me is the terrible writing and format of the article. Geez, if you are going to go with the 'look back at the past' motif, then why would someone recount specific regular season wins and losses and well as a 11-4 stretch? All would be banal and pointless when looking back 30 years ago.

At best, it would be another example of how teams cant be thrown together and expect to gel in one season, especially when beset by injuries. If anynoe was looking back at the lakers in the 2000-2020 era, it will likely be how the Lakers finally caught up and passed the Celtics for the most championships of all time in the NBA and when Kobe Bryant passed Wilt and MJ on the scoring charts and retired as the greatest Laker ever (maybe). Terrible writing. At least be consistent in your motif.

well at least Doughboy has let up on his hate a bit, before he said we had a negative chance to make it at least now he's leaving the making it part open but just does his typical backhanded comments with the beat down like a drum comment

for this team, there will never be a win to haters eyes IMO, if we make the playoffs and somehow get an "upset" and make it to wcf or further, all of them will say it was EXPECTED and team should've played like that all season. Probably Kenny will make it sound like we didnt' deserve to win again like a few years ago against Hou , so no win in the haters eyes this year no matter what this team does.

therealdeal wrote:Lakers Superstar formula has won 10 Championships in the last 30 years and been to the Finals another 6 times. In 30 years we've been to the FInals more than we've not been to the FInals.

I think our Superstar Formula is working just fine.

I hope the Lakers see this. I hope they see it and really try hard against Denver tonight. It'd be easy to pack this game in like most of us fans have (me included).

^^ Agreed 100% on all accounts. If I'm not mistaken the Lakers have the highest win percentage of any franchise in the NBA. And yes, we've been to the Finals as a franchise nearly 50% of the time since the league began. And we've won about half of those Finals. It's absurd. Actually, it's beyond absurd.

So yeah, there's not a whole lot wrong about what the Lakers have done. Even the writer had to admit that we've been injury plagued all year long. That's been our downfall this season - health. And we all knew that it could be especially with older players like we have on our roster.

This is perfect bulletin board material. Hopefully it makes it to the locker room, although D' Antoni admittedly doesn't read press so I don't think it will.

Of course the Lakers should have motivation enough with their push for the playoffs. But it's always nice to bring up a little more.

That said, tonight's game is an uphill battle for sure. Gritty win against Dallas, now they have to go to mile high altitude on the second night of back to back. I agree with other posters who brought it up, it seems like we always have to play away games in Denver on the second night of back to backs. Sucks. They just do that thing they do, play even for the first half and then at the end of the third/beginning of the fourth they pour it on when our guys are gasping for air and are totally gassed.

And for Denver, a non-superstar plan hasn't worked, ever. Our superstar plans won us 5 titles in the 80's, 3 with Shaq and Kobe and 2 with Kobe and Pau. The superstar plan won the Heat a title last season, 2 Finals in a row, so yeah...